First of all, most of you barely know about Qatar. It is pronounced cutter, with a slight guttural "c," and is this tiny thumb in the Persian Gulf with Saudi Arabia to the south.
How small? Well, Hawaii, a little state in the Pacific Ocean, has more than twice the land area of Qatar. The citizen population is somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000, but up to a total of 2 million might live here, for Qataris don't do any menial work. There are more workers from India than the number of local residents, and almost as many from the Philippines.
I haven't been here long enough to appreciate or understand this, but expatriates tell me that Qataris have a superiority complex and are aloof. After years working in this country, most have never had a personal discussion with a citizen. I found a few to be friendly and helpful, but that could be because I was invited to come by their government. But if true, this almost reminds me of Singapore, but as an extreme case.
What they are, in any case, are rich! Qatar sells about 1.2 million barrels of oil daily, worth about $100 million today. These revenues mean Qataris pay no taxes, have free medical and education and only take high level positions. Gasoline costs less than a dollar a gallon, but drinking water is 2.5 higher than gas. In the United States, gasoline is 2.5 times more expensive than bottled water.
The country has been run by the same family since the middle 1800s, with independence from the British coming in 1971. In 1995, the current leader, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, overthrew his father in a bloodless coup, changing the nature of the country. Electricity generation, for example, has zoomed by 600% since then and the country is either number one or two in GDP per capita, with these numbers wildly different depending on the report. The International Monetary Fund has Luxembourg over Qatar, with both around $78,000, and the CIA factbook lists Lichstenstein at $122,100 and Qatar at $121,700, with Luxembourg at $78,000.
Here, further, are two amazing statistics:
1. The per capita carbon dioxide emission (metric tons/year) of Qatar is 55.4, the worst by far in the world, with a bunch of Arab countries and Caribbean islands around 30. The USA is #11 at 18.9 and China, now the largest emitter, is only at #79 with 4.9.
2. As tiny as is their land, they have the third largest known natural gas reserves. Saudi Arabia is #5 and the USA #6. There is, of course, oil as well, expected to be good at current extraction rates for four decades.
Thus, here is their dilemma. What do they do when their fossil resources deplete? For all practical purposes, they have a generation to plan for their next billion years. Thus was held the Doha Carbon and Energy Forum, their very first gathering ever to plan for a possible solar future, as sunlight they, indeed, do have.
Almost 200 delegates, Qataris and us aliens from around the world, came to work out a possible plan for them. The results were very fundamental, but this is step one of a long process.
Let me provide my personal vision, though, for the final decisions won't be made until several more meetings are held, and this could take a few years:
1. Certainly, educate, educate, educate. Get all the help you can, as you have already initiated with Education City and various international universities.
2. Go to Singapore and learn how they established Biopolis and Fusionopolis. Then, create QATARPOLIS as the leading world center for research, development and commercialization of those sustainable resources found in this country and the Middle East. Clearly, solar energy will be a focus. Set aside a billion dollars every year to bring the top 250 specialists from the world over to work closely with your best, and develop steeples of research excellence, patents, government-company partnerships and the full range of commercial enterprises.
3. However, the obvious bridge for the next generation, and, perhaps, a separate energy park--call it, say, METHANOPIA--should be an all out effort to convert natural gas into methanol for transportation. Nobel Laureate George Olah, who recently wrote a book about the methanol economy, would find the closest thing to heaven here. Be the first to patent the direct methanol fuel cell, for hydrogen and methanol are the only two fuels capable of being directly fed into a fuel cell. Why fuel cell? Well, a fuel cell car can take it five times further than one powered by lithium batteries. But hydrogen is too expensive, and, anyway, one gallon of methanol has more accessible hydrogen than one gallon of liquid hydrogen. Plus, the current infrastructure only supports liquid fuel. Spend a billion dollars to quickly develop and commercialize that direct methanol fuel cell for vehicles. Hint: Toshiba has apparently done this for portable applications, so the concept is real. You will then control the future of ground transportation.
The Emir essentially has infinite powers and $35 billion dollars a year. He could, actually, if he found the above to be compelling, just make a command decision, something even Singapore cannot. Yes, it is conceivable that Qatar can lead the world towards sustainability.